home sweet home

Well, everyone...I've made it back to the US in one piece after approximately 3 days of air travel via Sydney and Tokyo. I have to say, I had a few truly 'lost in translation' moments in my brief Tokyo experience and flying Japan Airlines. My first observation: the Japanese are very lovely and gracious people. My second observation: a decent number of Japanese wear face masks (a la the SARS scare) at the airport which threw me a bit. My third observation: everyone speaks English. My fourth observation: from the very small bit of it I experienced, I have to say, Japanese TV shows are extremely bizarre. I saw alot of men 'wearing' stuffed animals and so much fluoro circa 1987. I hope to expand upon these very cursory observations in a few weeks time when I'm back in Tokyo for a proper visit.

And let me just say..I'm in winter hell. It's about -3 in Chicago right now and I am dreaming of a 37 degree Melbourne summer. I need to thaw out my fingers...more to come later...